When her cousin and wife fail to return from a walk, this story takes a sinister turn to a quest of survival A woman takes a holiday in the Austrian mountains, spending a few days with her cousin and his wife in their hunting lodge. When the couple fails to return from a walk, the woman sets off to look for them. But her journey reaches a sinister and inexplicable dead end. She discovers only a transparent wall behind which there seems to be no life. Trapped alone behind the mysterious wall she begins the arduous work of survival. This is at once a simple account of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and the use of one's name, and simultaneously a disturbing dissection of the place of human beings in the natural world. **PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, STATION ELEVEN AND THE MARTIAN VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit - and must protect. Discover great writing on the most urgent story of our times.
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0 04 stars
Cover 3; characters 4; Plot 4; Pace 4; Intrigue 3; Logic 4; worldbuilding 5; Writing 5; Enjoyment 4
I actually liked this book much more than I thought I would! This is a post-apocalypse book were our MC is, as far as she or we know, the only person on earth left alive. And unlike a lot of apocalypse scenarios we see, she's stuck in one location so what she has with her is all she has to survive on.
This story was written as a long diary-style entry with no chapters or real separation of story but more of a stream of conscious thought. Through out the novel we learn how the MC has spent her time after finding out that she is alone and how that changes her into someone who is able to survive the new world she's in.
There are a lot of really moving moments describing how foolish we all are for the things we find important and how none of it really matters. Which I especially find poignant due to the fact that this book was written prior to the internet and our current age of technology where we are decidedly even more foolish than we were when the book was published.
The author goes into great detail describing how our MC is able to survive in this new landscape and how it has changed her. We get to be inside her head for all of the thoughts about those she left behind in the world and what her future will bring.
A lot of discussion is had on how animals and man are very different types of creatures. At one point the MC writes "The only enemy I had ever encountered in my life so far has been man." and boy, that one really shows it's ugly head throughout the novel.
I found this to be quite outside of the realm of things I usually read but I had a fantastic time and can't wait to discuss it at book club this week!
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